Bess houdini full#

The family moved to Milwaukee and soon to New York City, where they moved into a boarding house. Rabbi Weiss became an American citizen that year but lost his job serving the congregation at Zion. They arrived in America on July 3, 1878, on the SS Fresia, changing their name to the German spelling Weiss and Erik’s name to Ehrich.Įhrich’s father became a rabbi of the Zion Reform Jewish Congregation in Appleton, Wisconsin, where the family lived until 1882. He was one of seven children and his parents, Rabbi Mayer Sámuel Weisz and Cecília Steiner brought the family to the United States when Erik was four. Harry Houdini was born Erik Weisz in Budapest, Hungary, on March 24, 1874, to a large Jewish family. 'ten years long enough to wait for any manitoba'.Houdini with his “two sweethearts,” his mother and wife, c. She is interred instead at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New New York Views Bess Houdini died from a heart attack on Februwhile in Needles, California, aboard an eastbound train traveling from Los Angeles to New York City.

Before he died, Walter passed on the tradition to Dorothy Dietrich, who now does them yearly at the Houdini Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania. At the conclusion of the failed séance, she put out the candle beside a photograph of Houdini that was said to have burned for ten years. On Halloween 1936, Bess and Saint conducted a 'Final Houdini Séance' on the roof of the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood. After Houdini died on October 31, 1926, Bess opened a tea house in New York, and briefly performed a vaudeville act in which she froze a man in ice.

Bess houdini full#

Bess also looked after their menagerie of pets, collected dolls, and made the costumes for Houdini's full evening roadshow. But he and Bess continued to occasionally perform their signature trick, Metamorphosis, throughout his career. Bess and Harry worked as The Houdinis for several years before Houdini hit it big as The Handcuff King. in 1876 to German immigrants Gebhard Rahner (a cabinet maker) and Balbina Rahner (née Bugel).īess was working at Coney Island in a song and dance act called The Floral Sisters when she was first courted by Houdini's younger brother, Theo (aka Theodore Hardeen). Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States. Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner, better known as Bess Houdini, was the stage assistant and wife of Harry Houdini. She is interred instead at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New New York On Halloween 1936, Bess and Saint conducted a 'Final Houdini Séance' on the roof of the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood.Īt the conclusion of the failed séance, she put out the candle beside a photograph of Houdini that was said to have burned for ten years. But he and Bess continued to occasionally perform their signature trick, Metamorphosis, throughout his career.īess also looked after their menagerie of pets, collected dolls, and made the costumes for Houdini's full evening roadshow.Īfter Houdini died on October 31, 1926, Bess opened a tea house in New York, and briefly performed a vaudeville act in which she froze a man in ice. Bess was working at Coney Island in a song and dance act called The Floral Sisters when she was first courted by Houdini's younger brother, Theo (aka Theodore Hardeen).